The Claims Conference, which negotiates payments for Holocaust survivors with the German government, announced Wednesday it had secured pensions for an additional 6,500 Holocaust survivors who endured the siege of Leningrad, as well as other groups who were able to flee Nazi terror in other parts of Europe.

In its annual negotiations with the German government, the NGO works to expand the number of people eligible for compensation. The 6,500 survivors who will benefit from the latest announced payments will start receiving monthly pensions of €375 ($435) from July.

“As this last generation of survivors age, their needs increase,” said Gideon Taylor, president of the Claims Conference.

“Even 75 years after the Holocaust, these symbolic payments provide recognition and restore a piece of the dignity taken from survivors in their youth,” he added.

What is the claims conference?
The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, better known by its truncated name the Claims Conference, is a New York-based NGO with offices in Germany and Israel that has negotiated with the German government for payments for survivors of the Shoah since its inception in 1952.

The group was founded by representatives of 23 major international Jewish organizations.

The beneficiaries of Wednesday’s announcement, approximately 4,500 survivors who endured the Siege of Leningrad, 800 French Jewish survivors and 1,200 Jews who made it through the war in Romania, have also already received one-time payments. Now they are also eligible for the newly authorized regular pension.

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